Ghost of a Chance
by SnarkyFanGirl
Summary: Several years after her hardly believable trip to the Underground, Sarah finds that she has become an insomniac. When she seeks a doctor for help, her life begins to shift in ways she never thought possible.


_**Author's Note: **This is my first attempt at a fanfiction story set in the Labyrinth movie universe, so please keep that in mind as you read. Normally I'm strictly an HP girl, but I stumbled onto some fabulous Labyrinth stuff and thought I'd try my hand at it. Constructive Crit welcome, no flames, please._

**Ghost of a Chance**

**A Labyrinth Fanfiction Story**

_By Cliodna_

Sarah stared out her window, watching the rain as it poured down. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn that she lived beneath a waterfall, so heavy was the curtain of water that fell from the heavens. She exhaled slowly, wondering if the weather had attuned itself to her mood.

Vaguely aware of someone saying her name, she turned around. "Sarah, are you even _listening_ to me?"

"I'm sorry," she apologized, climbing down from the window seat. "I was thinking about something, and didn't hear you."

"I just asked if you wanted pepperoni on your pizza," David said, frowning. He held the phone in one hand with the other cupping the mouthpiece.

"That's fine – I'm not picky," she said, shrugging. He rolled his eyes and put the phone back up to his ear as he left the room.

She'd been living with David since she'd turned twenty one, which had been two years ago, and he still hadn't acclimated himself to her mood swings. Recently she'd begun to wonder if she'd done the right thing by moving in with him – it seemed that they were almost always at odds with each other.

Where David was a social creature, Sarah liked to spend quiet evenings at home, reading or watching old movies. David liked fast food, and Sarah liked home cooked meals. David was outgoing and happy, where Sarah was introverted and moody. At first he'd been exactly what she needed – taking her out to parties and gatherings, and generally helping her put her life back in order.

Now his nearness was becoming oppressive.

She moved into the living room and curled up on the couch, then pulled a quilt over her legs to ward off the slight draft in the apartment. Things had just been difficult, she told herself. It was difficult to be sucked into a world of dreams and fantastic things, and then be spit back out into the harsh reality of the world she lived in – even if her dream world _had_ been dangerous.

She couldn't really be blamed if Toby had developed an attachment to her after that, or if she'd been even more dreamy and despondent afterwards, could she? She'd spent less than thirteen hours in that other world, but those scant hours had changed her life irrevocably.

"What were you thinking about this time?" David asked warily, as he took a seat beside her.

"Not much of anything," she answered, giving him a vague smile. "I was just watching it rain."

"You never tire of doing that, do you? Sometimes I think you would be perfectly content to sit and watch the grass grow."

She laughed. "You're exaggerating again. The rain is soothing, and there's just something about a storm. Something so-"

"Magical?" he offered, not noticing how she stiffened beside him. "That's my Sarah – always finding magic in ordinary things. So here we are," he said, scooting closer to her. "Another boring night at home, alone. Anything good on T.V. tonight?"

"They're having a Bette Davis marathon," she said, picking up the remote and changing the channel. David groaned.

"Damn it, Sarah! Why do you like those stupid black and white movies? Why can't we watch something _new?_"

"Those movies have so much intrigue and romance in them, though," she protested, frowning. "I _love_ those movies."

"I know," he said, sighing. He rose from the sofa.

"Where are you going?"

"I just realized that we're out of sodas. I'm going to go down to the convenience store and pick some up. Want anything?"

"No, thanks."

"I'll be right back."

She waited until she heard the door slam shut, and then sighed. She knew he meant well, wanting to get her to rejoin the land of the living, but she just didn't feel like being around other people right now.

She rose from the couch and went into her bedroom, rummaging through the bottom drawer of her dresser for her favorite book. She didn't know why she hid it from David – she only knew that he could never understand its significance. The leather-bound book looked old and battered, with the gold embossed letters on the cover fading from use.

She'd been tempted to throw it out so many times that she'd stopped counting, but always – _always -_ she would fish it out of the trash can and hide it again. She couldn't bring herself to part with it. If nothing else, it served as a reminder of all of the friends she'd made in that other world.

Friends who, three weeks after the incident, never contacted her again. She had tried time and time again to contact them; she'd sat in front of her mirror and closed her eyes, thinking of them as hard as she could. She'd thought, she'd spoken their names, and in the end, she'd even screamed their names, but nothing had ever happened. She wondered constantly what had happened to them. Had He been cruel to them, after she'd gone? After all, they were His subjects, and they'd turned on him in order to help her. She knew, perhaps better than anyone, what He was capable of; the way he twisted things around and the cruelty of which he was so adept.

She glanced up and caught the reflection of herself in the mirror, wincing as she did. Her hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail, since she'd been too lazy to even brush it that morning. She wore no makeup and the dark smudges beneath her eyes were prominent – so much so that she wondered why David hadn't said anything about them yet.

The truth was that she hadn't been sleeping well for a long time. She'd been suffering from bouts of insomnia and night terrors. When she was supposed to be sleeping, she would either watch old movies on television or read a book. She'd made an appointment with her doctor, but that appointment wasn't until tomorrow morning. She'd suffered through months of insomnia, she reasoned; one more night wouldn't kill her.

She turned her eyes away from her reflection, disgusted and shamed by what she'd seen. She'd have to make a concerted effort starting tomorrow to improve her appearance. Perhaps after she visited the doctor she could stop somewhere and treat herself to some new clothes.

In any case, she was comforted by the fact that by this time tomorrow night, she would be getting her first real night of sleep in months.

* * *

"Miss Williams, I must tell you that your case is extremely unfamiliar to me," Doctor Shankford mused aloud, shaking his head. Sarah was seated in his office, in front of his desk, after enduring what had seemed like endless questions and tests. Her left leg began bobbing up and down nervously.

"Is it bad?"

"It's not _bad_, per se, it's just highly unusual for someone of your age to have such a severe sleeping disorder."

"So what does that mean?"

He eyed her thoughtfully for a moment, and then pulled a white pad out of his upper left desk drawer and began writing on it. "I'm going to prescribe some medication that will help you sleep. Normally I wouldn't do this until after you've seen me several times and we've tried other methods, but I'm going to go ahead and do it." He tore the paper off of the pad and shoved it towards her.

"It's that bad, huh?" she asked softly, choosing to stare down at the prescription in her hand rather than meet his eyes.

"Just take one of those about an hour before bedtime, and you'll be able to get some rest," he reassured her. "And if you have any sort of a reaction to them, please call and let me know."

"Reaction?" Sarah asked nervously, crumpling the slip of paper she held.

"Oh, you know, standard side effects," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "Headaches, nausea, rashes – things along that vein." Sarah nodded and rose from her chair.

"Thank you, Doctor."

He gave her a stern look that reminded her very much of the one her father used to give her, and then his face melted into a soft smile. "I trust you'll be feeling much better after a good night's sleep, young lady."

Sarah pulled the door open and went into the outer office, where the other patients were waiting. After signing some insurance forms, she went to the nearest pharmacy to get her medication filled, and then headed home.

* * *

_Sarah,_

_Got a call from the home office this morning. Had to fly to New York, will be there overnight. Will call after dinner to check on you. Take care._

_David_

Sarah winced at the brief tone of the note she'd found taped to the front door. He may have been in a hurry, but the note had sounded cold despite its rushed tone.

He hadn't even signed it "love" or "love you," which stung. It shouldn't have hurt her at all, considering that they hadn't actually spoken the words aloud to each other in almost six months. She locked the door behind her and tossed the hurtful note in the wastecan before fishing a soda out of the fridge and retiring to their bedroom.

She pulled her jeans and shirt off, opting to lounge around the house in her floor-length flannel nightgown. David always laughed at her for keeping it; he had no idea that she actually _wore_ it when he wasn't home. It was decorated with fluffy blue and white clouds and prancing unicorns, and had been her favorite nightgown since she was sixteen.

It was a cherished piece of a childhood long abandoned, and she clung to it with unhealthy fervor - she wasn't about to part with it just because her live-in boyfriend thought it was "dorky."

She lay back on her bed and pulled the covers up before reaching over to her bedside table and retrieving the slender brown bottle that contained her miracle sleep cure. She gave a vague smile at this and shook her head once before popping the lid and shaking a single pill into her hand. Wincing slightly at the cold that seeped into her palm, she lifted the aluminum soda can to her lips and washed the drug down with a pull of Coke.

The remote was too far away to reach, or she would have turned the television on to fall asleep to. Since she wasn't familiar with the medication and didn't know how long it might take to affect her, she supposed that it was better to just lie still and wait to fall asleep.

This was the worst part of going to bed; the thoughts that plagued her at night, when she lie still beneath the covers. It was then that she had nothing to keep her mind occupied, and it was then that all of the trials and tribulations of her life chose to assault her. She guessed that this was partially what impeded her ability to sleep – the constant worrying that her mind did at night without her permission.

And David had never quite gotten used to her insomnia, had he? She thought. Her mind began to drift slightly as she contemplated the fact of him. Tall with olive skin, he had caught her eye immediately. His big brown eyes had been honest and open, and that was what she'd needed at the time.

_Now,_ she thought with a yawn. Now she would be happy if he would just call the whole charade off and move out, or ask her to. Her eyes slipped shut with little effort, and thoughts of David were long gone as she succumbed to the throes of sleep.

* * *

When Sarah opened her eyes, she was immediately assaulted by the bright sunlight. It made her head hurt, and she raised her arms to shield her face.

"Sawah… Sawah _fwend_."

Her arms dropped and her eyes opened wide as she glanced around her, looking for the source of the whispered declaration. When she saw nothing but trees and moss, she frowned. Was she imagining things? The soft voice had sounded like it was right in front of her.

She shrugged and began walking, wanting to explore wherever it was that she happened to be. It looked vaguely familiar, though she couldn't figure out where she'd seen it before. She walked leisurely through the wooded area, weaving effortlessly between the voluminous tree trunks, drinking in the scenery she passed.

It truly was lovely countryside.

The sky was a brilliant shade of cerulean, unmarred by clouds. Birds of all sizes passed overhead, singing and chirping as they went. Sarah smiled at this, enjoying the sound of the birdsongs they shared with her.

"_Sawah fwend."_

She whirled on her heel and surveyed the landscape behind her, searching for… well, she wasn't even _sure_ what she was looking for. The hairs on the back of her neck rose, and gooseflesh covered her skin as the wind whipped her hair about her face, and the cerulean sky turned unfriendly and grey.

"_Do you _still_ want to look for him, Sarah?"_

"Who's there?" she breathed, her eyes widening with panic. She recognized that voice; _God,_ she recognized that voice! Where was he, and more importantly, where was _she?_ "Show yourself!" she demanded.

Brittle laughter echoed in her ears as everything went black.


End file.
